Board of Directors

All CAA board members serve a 3-year term on a volunteer basis. New board member elections are held during the member meeting at our annual conference. The Board of Directors meets at least twice a year to plan events and provide direction for the organization.

Dan Harbuck - President

Dan and his wife Andrea live with their 4 kids in the pineywoods of east Texas. He has split time over the last several years between managing the challenge course and team-building program for Stephen F. Austin State University, and working as a ropes course trainer/builder/inspector for Adventure Experiences. He was irrevocably steered to a life in the outdoors as a participant on a 21-day wilderness trip in the Sierra Nevada with Summit Adventure in the year 2000. The last 15 years have been filled leading backcountry expeditions, rock climbing trips, and ropes course programs in Australia, California, Texas, and a few places in between. He first attended a CAA conference in 2006.

Hope Castillo - Secretary / Communications

Hope is a recent graduate of Georgia College and State University with a degree in Outdoor Education. She is currently living in Savannah, Georgia, serving on staff at a local church. In the near future, she plans to attend graduate school at Liberty University, pursuing a Masters of Christian Ministry degree.

Hope has had a love for the outdoors and for ministry since she was young and hopes to have a career in outdoor ministry. She first attended the CAA conference in October of 2016 in Black Mountain, NC and became a member in January of 2017. She looks forward to promoting CAA and networking people who love the outdoors and loves Jesus with each other.

Brad Gearhart

Brad is a graduate of Messiah College in Pennsylvania, with a degree in Adventure Education. As part of his time at Messiah, Brad graduated a Semester in the Rockies with the National Outdoor Leadership School in the spring of his Junior year. Upon graduation he moved south to Cameron Boys Camp in Cameron, NC where he has been working for 7 years in a variety of roles. His current role is as the Program Supervisor. Brad is also a Wilderness First Aid Instructor, a Certified Outdoor Educator with the Wilderness Education Association, a Master Educator with Leave No Trace, a Safe Crisis Management Instructor, and a recently certified American Canoeing Association Level Three Tandem Canoe Instructor.

Brad is currently working on implementing his newly acquired ACA training into the training at Cameron Boys Camp as well as looking for ways to continue to better the program. In addition to working the ACA training in, you can often find Brad working alongside the boys and chiefs building tents, making crafts, working through bad attitudes or planning their next adventure.

Brad and his wife Alexa have two daughters, Rowan and Cora, and an energetic dog, Willow. The Gearhart's live on the property of Cameron Boys Camp.

William Hayes - Treasurer

William is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned a BA in International Studies. After college he worked for Cru for a year in Argentina. Later, he completed an MA in Religion at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary. He has worked since 2009 for the CCO (Coalition for Christian Outreach) as an Associate Chaplain and Director of Wilderness Ministry at Ohio Wesleyan University. His campus ministry includes mentoring, discipleship, and taking students on wilderness treks all over the U.S. and to South America. He loves college students and is passionate about using experiences in the outdoors to help lead them to Christ. He first got to know the CAA at the fall conference in 2011. William currently lives in Delaware, OH with his wife, Jill, and their four children.

Joel Brubaker - Membership

Joel has grown up with a love for the outdoors, spending many summers hiking and camping with his family. Two of the most adventurous and formative times for Joel were spending 3 1/2 months backpacking on the Appalachian Trail and leading wilderness trips for middle school and high schoolers during college. Joel is a graduate of Houghton College with a degree in Biblical Studies and minors in Outdoor Recreation and Missions. After graduating from Houghton, he worked at Geneva College and obtained his MA in Higher Education. After working in higher education for 8 years Joel and his wife Sara answered the called to serve full time at Pine Valley Camp, working with at-risk youth from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania region. As the Teen Camp Director, Joel loves the opportunity to take youth on adventures they might not otherwise experience and disciple the teens and college aged counselors. Joel was first introduced to the CAA at the fall conference in 2017 and is excited to be in community with other Christian adventures from around the country. Joel, Sara and their two boys live in Beaver Falls, PA.

Sam Rubinson

Sam currently lives in Columbia, SC with his wife Judy and 4 grown children. He is a professor of Youth Ministry Family and Culture and Adventure Education at Columbia International University. He was introduced to the CAA at the 2015 Conference and has attended yearly since. A new comer to the board as of Nov 2018. Sam started in Christian Camping for ten years then moved into church and parachurch ministry always utilizing adventure programing for discipleship. He currently holds certifications with: WFR, PADI Instructor.